DVD Review: Bully (C-)

Bully (2001)
Directed by Larry Clark
Starring Brad Renfro, Bijou Phillips, Rachel Miner
MPAA: R
Grade: C-

Review by Scott Standish

I used to consider myself a big fan of Larry Clark films (Another Day In Paradise is a wonderful film) but this one left me a bit cold. The tagline for Bully was "It's 4 AM, do you know where your kids are?" but a better tagline would have been "Watch teen kids have sex and murder somebody" because that's really the extent of this movie's depth.

Brad Renfro plays Marty, a young kid that has been bullied and persecuted by his best friend Bobby (Nick Stahl). Bobby is one mean bastard. He beats up his friends and rapes their girlfriends. Fed up with all of the abuse, Bobby's friends decide to take Bobby out once and for all. Causing a little bump in the road is the fact that these Southern Florida kids are definitely not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

A little boring and not very well acted, this one was a big disappointment. The "shock value" of the sex scenes wear off quickly and at after a certain point, it just seems a bit creepy. On the positive side, Rachel Minor stands out above the average cast and Nick Stahl does a pretty decent job as the creepy Bobby. For Larry Clark fans only, otherwise you might want to check out the far better Edge City instead.

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